Perspectives in Medical Education

Abstract

Professor Takahiro Amano, on how to approach and undertake the task of reforming the medical school curriculum to enhance clinical skills training, in keeping with the mandate established by the Ministry of Health in Japan. 1 The main thrust of the recommendations that emerged, based on observations made during those visits, was to de-emphasize didactic teaching in favor of problem-based learning and the acquisition of clinical skills. [2][3][4][5] This set in motion a process that, as noted earlier, is more-or-less a recapitulation of the process that played out in the late 80's and early 90's in medical schools across the US. [6][7][8] Once the need for such reform was acknowledged at Keio, the next logical step in the progression towards an integrated curriculum at Keio was to reform the preclini- Perspectives in Medical Education AbstractReform of preclinical medical education in Japan requires changes in the curriculum to make it more clinically focused and interactive. At present, course content in Anatomy is usually designed and taught with little or no clinical direction and involves a heavy emphasis on by-rote learning to memorize often minor facts that have little importance in clinical medicine. As a result, the content is boring, it is learned solely for the purpose of passing exams and it is promptly forgotten, with little sense of its need in clinical practice. Successful reform of the curriculum in Anatomy requires two critical changes. The first is that content must be made interesting to students by emphasizing its clinical importance, through a close collaboration between preclinical and clinical departments, Thus, the Surgical Faculty must be incorporated in the organization and teaching of the Anatomy curriculum. Core content can thereby be pared down to only what is considered essential to provide a foundation for the later clinical years, and the clinical importance of that content will, in turn, be self-evident to students. The second change that must be implemented is to make the learning process more appealing to the students. This can be facilitated by the use of any of several commercial IT programs that make learning in Anatomy both dynamic and engaging. These dual strategies will considerably enhance the learning of one of the most basic subjects in the medical school and ensure that the review and retention of the material are enhanced. (Keio J Med 58 (4) : 210 -215, December 2009)

Anatomy as the backbone of an integrated first year medical curriculum: Design and implementation

“…However, the effectiveness of this traditional approach has been questioned in recent years, resulting in a call for integration of the basic sciences with each other and with the clinical sciences in a new paradigm for medical education (Cooke et al, 2010). The need to evaluate medical education programs and implement curriculum changes has also been recognized outside the United States in Italy (Snelgrove et al, 2009), Korea (Kim and Kee, 2010), Sweden (Edgren et al, 2010), and Japan (Rao and Rao, 2009). Several issues may account for this world-wide movement in education such as the rapid and large-scale expansion of medical science knowledge, recent changes in medical practice associated with technological advances, health-care funding issues, and new health problems that have emerged (Leung et al, 2006).…”